Russian Gays Arrested at Polling Place

Thirteen gays and lesbians were arrested in Moscow on Dec. 1 as they were voting at a polling place.

The activists, including lead Pride organizers Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev, were later charged with staging an illegal demonstration.

The detentions were an apparent response to a call by activists for gays to write "No to homophobes!" on their ballots.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who banned gay pride events this year and last year, was scheduled to vote at the same location about an hour after the arrests occurred.

The activists were taken to a police station and released several hours later after a representative of the city prosecutor's office pointed out that it is illegal to detain someone for more than three hours without giving a reason.

When Luzhkov banned the city's first two gay pride parades, organizers responded by staging protest rallies, which were violently attacked by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police.

In January, Luzhkov said: "Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. … Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children."